Jamie Dornan Cast as Christian Grey in ’50 Shades of Grey’

It seems like only last month that Pacific Rim star Charlie Hunnam was cast as Edward Cullen analog, Christian Grey, in the film adaptation of the bestselling novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Oh, wait, that waslast month. Then, almost as quickly as he had been cast, he dropped out of the project because of scheduling conflicts with Sons of Anarchy (though rumors are it had more to do with the lackluster content of the script).

According to Variety, upon Hunnam’s exit from the film, Fifty Shades producers chose to go with a relatively unknown actor as opposed to a relatively known actor. Screen tests with both Dornan and Johnson last Friday clinched the deal.

Jamie Dornan is perhaps best known to Americans for his role as The Huntsman/Sheriff on ABC’s Once Upon a Time. More recently, he played the serial killer/antagonist in the BBC crime series The Fall opposite Gillian Anderson (X-Files), which was critically-acclaimed and extremely popular. (You can watch the first full season on Netflix streaming; season 2 goes into production January 2014.)

Jamie Dornan in ‘Once Upon a Time’

As far as whether or not he fits the part, he certainly looks it quite a bit more than Hunnam, which was a major source of contention for some fans of the book series. Plus, anybody who’s seen The Fall knows that this guy can pull off equal parts dark (creepy?) and charming with incredible ease. That said, it’s unclear how good his American accent is – even in the American series Once Upon a Time, he sported an Irish accent. Perhaps Christian Grey will now be Chrstian O‘Grey?

Of course, I’m not this movie’s target demographic, so it doesn’t particularly matter how I feel about the guy. What say you, Screen Rant readers (who like these books)? Do you think Jamie Dornan looks the part of Christian Grey? Have you seen his turns in Once Upon a Time and The Fall and do you think he’ll be a good addition tothe Fifty Shades cast? Drop us a line in the comments.